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A review by kevin_shepherd
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris
5.0
“The drive to cast contemporary America as a colorblind society impairs our ability to recognize two important phenomena: the persistence of segregation and how it shapes the identities of black girls, and the impacts of systems that reproduce and reinforce unequal access to educational opportunity.”
Black girls are often characterized by their teachers and educational administrators as more active and less conforming than their white counterparts. Consequently, they are frequently addressed more critically and less supportively. Simple acts such as asking questions or speaking out of turn can be seen as disruptive disobedience. The disallowance of classroom interaction shuts down the voices of black girls and reinforces their negative associations with education and authority.
Adding insult to injury, Black girls are triply oppressed: they are oppressed as women in a patriarchal society, they are oppressed as beings of color in a culture of white superiority, and they are very often oppressed as poor and impoverished in a capitalist hierarchy. Frankly, the only thing more challenging than growing up poor, black, and female in America is growing up poor, black, female, and gay in America.
“The current practices and prevailing consciousness in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and other places young people occupy regularly respond to black girls as if they are fully developed adults and in turn their responses to their mistakes follow a similar pattern. Society treats them this way and our girls believe the hype. And when they do, adults ignore the power dynamics that affect youthful decision making.”
These young women of color deserve educators who do not see them as inferior. They deserve something more than zero tolerance disciplinary policies aimed at adolescent and preadolescent demographics. We are failing them by systems of academic suspension and expulsion. We are failing them by lowered expectations that, effectively, grant them permission to fail.
Monique Morris has authored an eye opener. Published in 2015, her statistics show trends that continue to this day—black girls are disproportionately suspended from our schools, disproportionately expelled from our schools, and disproportionately detained and/or incarcerated in our juvenile justice institutions. This book should be required reading for every educator, educational administrator, and detention facility staff member in America.
“The education of black girls is a lifesaving act of social justice… There are no throwaway children. We can and must do better.”
Black girls are often characterized by their teachers and educational administrators as more active and less conforming than their white counterparts. Consequently, they are frequently addressed more critically and less supportively. Simple acts such as asking questions or speaking out of turn can be seen as disruptive disobedience. The disallowance of classroom interaction shuts down the voices of black girls and reinforces their negative associations with education and authority.
Adding insult to injury, Black girls are triply oppressed: they are oppressed as women in a patriarchal society, they are oppressed as beings of color in a culture of white superiority, and they are very often oppressed as poor and impoverished in a capitalist hierarchy. Frankly, the only thing more challenging than growing up poor, black, and female in America is growing up poor, black, female, and gay in America.
“The current practices and prevailing consciousness in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and other places young people occupy regularly respond to black girls as if they are fully developed adults and in turn their responses to their mistakes follow a similar pattern. Society treats them this way and our girls believe the hype. And when they do, adults ignore the power dynamics that affect youthful decision making.”
These young women of color deserve educators who do not see them as inferior. They deserve something more than zero tolerance disciplinary policies aimed at adolescent and preadolescent demographics. We are failing them by systems of academic suspension and expulsion. We are failing them by lowered expectations that, effectively, grant them permission to fail.
Monique Morris has authored an eye opener. Published in 2015, her statistics show trends that continue to this day—black girls are disproportionately suspended from our schools, disproportionately expelled from our schools, and disproportionately detained and/or incarcerated in our juvenile justice institutions. This book should be required reading for every educator, educational administrator, and detention facility staff member in America.
“The education of black girls is a lifesaving act of social justice… There are no throwaway children. We can and must do better.”